Political influences no.3: The Spartacist League – Defeat clerical fascism! Down with little England demagoguery! Complete the American revolution!

 A blogger once wrote that there was “a whiff of Spartishness” about me.  He wasn’t completely wrong.

At some point as a precocious and no doubt very irritating kid, I went on some national demo, probably with my parents, probably anti-nuclear. I collected leaflets and other freebies right, left and centre. I was fascinated and mystified by the array of political positions. In an act that I now recognise as almost certainly clinically insane, I wrote to a number of them asking them to explain their unique selling points, and for their views on particular topics.

One of the groups I wrote to was the New Communist Party, a tankie breakaway from the Communist Party which left because the CPGB no longer saw Stalin as a wholly good thing. I was cursed then for years with a weekly visit from a deeply lonely and dysfunctional NCP member who had a geographically very widely dispersed paper round of about three addresses. I never had the heart to tell him that his paper was unimaginably dull and had no resonance with my politics.

I was much luckier with the Sparts.

From the Vaults: Jews Against the Vietnam War

[Intro by Bob: I am pleased to publish a guest post by Michael Ezra, who more regularly publishes at Harry's Place, where he is best known for his "From the Valuts" series. This particular blast from the past obviously resonates with some of the themes we focus on here.]

This is a Guest Post by Michael Ezra

Below I enclose the full text of an undated leaflet by a group calling itself “Jews Against the War in Vietnam.” I suspect it dates from at some point between 1969 and 1972. What is interesting is that the address of the group, published at the bottom of the leaflet, is exactly the same address as that of the UK branch of Mapam, the socialist Zionist Israeli political party.

VIETNAM AND THE MIDDLE EAST

THE ISRAEL LEFT SUPPORTS:

(i)                   the struggle for freedom and self-determination of the peoples of Vietnam

(ii)                 The withdrawal of foreign armed forces from Vietnam and an end to Great Power interference.

(iii)                Victory for the National Liberation Front.

NORTH VIETNAM SAYS

“The Government of North Vietnam acknowledges the right to existence of the State of Israel and the necessity of peace in the Middle East based on the rights to self determination of all the peoples in the region”.

Declaration of Mr. Tram Ding Dung, Representative in Paris of North Vietnam, to the Chairman of the Israeli Committee for Peace in the Middle East.

WE call on the British Left to SUPPORT:

A SETTLEMENT IN THE MIDDLE EAST JUST AS THEY SUPPORT ONE IN VIETNAM.

Starting the week

First, we mourn the passing of the great Solomon Burke, one of the most awesome and underrated soul singers of his (or any) generation. Nice tributes from Nestor, Funky16Corners, Breath of Life, Fifty Cent Lighter, Muzzle of Bees, Radio Exile and Ethan Jayne. This is one of my favourite of his songs, already posted by Stroppy:

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The only reason I’ve not linked to this excellent post before is I wanted to write something more substantial about it, but I haven’t yet, so please just go and read it: Chris Dillow on Ed Miliband on immigration. On a related topic, see Martin Ruhs and Bridget Anderson on Britain’s economic dependency on underpaid migrant workers.

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A very sensible post by Iman Qureshi on why the trial against Geert Wilders is wrong.

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A radically different view on the Tea Party from the one we normally get from the Guardian. [UPDATE: Just notice Carl already posted on this. My view is slightly different from his, as I may write more fully one day if I manage to find time.]

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Michael Ezra on our shared obsession: Chomsky and Cambodia. Because of Harry’s Place’s irritating policy of deleting comment threads, I add here a link dug up by Tim B, of Margaret Thatcher interviewed on Blue Peter (a BBC children’s TV programme) from 1988, which is truly disgusting.

Multiplicity

On the Sweden Democrats and the continent-wide rise of right-wing Euro-nationalism: Yascha Mounk in Arguing the World (interesting, but slightly flawed), Markha Valenta in OpenDemocracy (very interesting, but more flawed) and our friend Johnny Guitar (more interesting, and not at all flawed). There is also a post by Gene at HP which notes an antisemitic speech by one of the senators of the governing right-wing People of Liberty party, condemning the post-fascist Gianfranco Fini, who has broken with Berlusconi's bloc: “Has Fini’s grouping already ordered the kippah?” Ciarrapico asked, referring to the Jewish skullcap” Gene concludes: “Yet another reminder to those who insist that antisemitism these days is virtually the exclusive preserve of the Muslim world and the far Left: you’re wrong.” Antisemitism and fascist ideology are not far beneath the glossy surface of the new European right, however much it protest that it is a “friend” to Israel. Related, and very important, is what Modernity says in the comment thread on his most recent EDL post.

As a footnote to my post on the Furedi cult, Helpful Herbert has a post on the RCP’s further infiltration in Boris Johnson’s Conservative City Hall.

Londonism: Talking of City Hall, a poll shows that Labour is more popular than the Tories with London voters (39% to 36%) but Boris is more popular than Ken (44% to 35%). Friends tell me that Oona couldn’t have beat Boris but Ken can; I hope they are not proven wrong. On a different London politics topic, Dave Osler has a well-written post on Lutfur Ali in Tower Hamlets, and old Labour’s traditions of municipal clientalism and Ted Jeory has a post on a Jewish Tory who seems to have been victim of racist corruption in the same borough.

I have been trying to follow the story of the police mutiny/failed coup in Ecuador, where police officers discontented with President Rafael Correa’s austerity measures stormed the presidential palace and the state broadcasting company last week. Correa was saved by the army and the coup seems to be dying down, although a state of emergency has been extended to the end of the week. On this, see Carl and Carlos de la Torre in OpenDemocracy. On the intimidation of the media by the golpistas and, to a lesser extent, Correa’s government, see CPJ and RSF. For my views, follow the comment trail below.

My new favourite blog: MabinogBlog, a left-leaning Green Party blogger with a very fine sense of humour. And also, sensible views on the Middle East. Talking of which, my post of the week is probably “Pissing in the Wind” by Weggis. And, talking of green stuff, here's Flesh on 10:10's bad day.

Meanwhile, the Hindu far right in India continues its ascent, while authoritarianism deepens in Sri Lanka.

Comment trail: On defining the failed coup attempt in Ecuador, a condensed version of the same, and a variation on the same in response to Andy Newman’s ridiculous posting of RT.com broadcasting complete nonsense.(Having said that, the footage in the RT.com video of one of the most un-impressive solidarity demonstrations I’ve ever seen is mildly amusing.)

On Luftur Rahman’s bid to be Tower Hamlets mayor, on the police ban of the EDL march in Leicester (continuing later), on Ken Livingstone’s covert report for Respect against Labour, and on the decent left, Zymunt Bauman and the administration of things.

Beautiful, uncool music: Finally, unrelated to anything in this post, one of my very, very favourite songs, Waylon Jennings' version of "Gentle on my Mind", originally by the highly underrated songwriter John Hartford.

Political influences 2: Roy Hattersley, Tony Benn and Michael Foot – socialism of the heart

This post is the second in a series. For the introduction to the series, see here; for the first instalment here.

I dreamed I saw a tree full of angels, up on Primrose Hill

And I flew with them over the Great Wen till I had seen my fill

Of such poverty and misery sure to tear my soul apart

I've got a socialism of the heart, I've got a socialism of the heart

– Billy Bragg “Upside”

I was brought up in a Labour Party household and later joined the Party the moment I was eligible, on my fifteenth birthday. In those days – this was the period of public service cuts, of mass unemployment, of the miners’ strike, of police brutality in the inner cities, of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, of the Battle of the Beanfield, a period overcast with the imminent threat of nuclear war – it was clear who the enemy was. Thatcher and her Conservative Party personified all evil, the SDP who had split the Labour vote were traitors who enabled her, and the Liberals were at best a distraction. What was less clear was who our side was.

It took me a while to think that maybe the Labour Party wasn’t who our side was (later, for a while, I came to see the Labour Party as part of the enemy). In my early teens, the question was: what should the Labour Party be? In the time I was learning about politics, the battle for the soul of the Labour Party had three contestants, the “right” personified by Dennis Healey and Roy Hattersley, the “soft left” personified by Michael Foot, and the “hard left” personified by Tony Benn. (There was an even harder left personified by the Militant Tendency, but I was barely aware of them, and by Labour Briefing, who I only encountered later, when I actually joined the party.

Meme progress report//Quick links

I've been meaning to update on the Influential leftists non-meme. Louise was quick off the starting block, and then Carl and James came up with their lists. Interesting to see the overlaps and contrasts - we all like Evo Morales, but are divided on Norman Geras and Slavoj Zizek, for example. I'm still waiting with baited breath for Phil and Jim. No-one really tagged anyone else, so probably this is dead as a meme, so if you feel like taking it up, please do.

Quick links:

Same as it ever was: the 18th Brumaire and the Tea Party movement.

A tale of two EDL supporters.

Some views on the Taliban from the Pakistani and Afghan left. In particular Farooq Sulehria: Three myths about Taliban (Viewpoint):

„The anti-imperialism currently on display in the Muslim world is symbol rather than substance, signifying a new phase in the relations between two estranged lovers, fundamentalism and imperialism. The anti-imperialism of religious forces thus actually serves imperialism in the current global scenario. It is the anti-imperialism of fools, if at all.“

Sally Berkow: sued for libel for talking sense about immigration.

Karl Pfeifer on the Hungarian far right.

Marko on the Chetniks and the Jews.

I never knew Jackie Wilson was Jewish...

More links here.

Gnome Chomsky 11: and Zippy and Bob

When I scheduled this, it had a tattoo from the official merchandising of Kelder’s Farm and Homegrown Mini-Golf, home of the world's largest garden gnome, Chomsky, but even my equally world record-breaking googling skills could not find the tattoo, gone from the web. Instead, then, here's Chomsky, with Zippy - and even Bobism.

Yes, that's Chomsky, from the back, in the comic strip Zippy by Bill Griffith on December 10, 2006.

Maybe one more next month.

However, more seriously, and pertinent to Bobism, please read this post by Ignoblus, "Of imperialism and second campism", on Noam Chomsky's response to Mearsheimer and Walt.

(And don't forget to read my long post on Spiked - the connection being that both Spiked and Chomsky have followed the logic of anti-imperialism down the road of genocide denialism in the Balkans, Spiked in endorsing Thomas Deichmann's claim that the Trnopolje internment camp was a benign refugee reception centre, Chomsky in endorsing Diane Johnstone's claims that the Srebernica massacre was exaggerated. Johnstone made her claims in Ordfront, which at least one Spiked writer also writes for (the generally sensible Nathalie Rothschild). For documentation on both cases, see Balkan Witness.

Quick links

Andre Glucksmann on the persecution of the Roma. David Osler on reading Arendt in Tehran. Mike Phillips on why multiculturalism fails immigrants. Duncan on the EDL and Loyalism.Two from Eamonn at Z-Word: The “Irene”, Occupied Cyprus, Gaza and Good Jews; The Invention of the Irish People. Liu Xiabo for the Nobel prize [h/t Jogo].

Why Ed Miliband recalls Colonel Blimp. Why it is a pity Ken beat Oona, but now it is time to get behind him. Michael Harris on the detoxification of Blair/Brown authoritarianism.

Triangulating Bobism 2: The Furedi cult

This post is dedicated to the other Will, Sarah and Jogo.

I recently wrote something like this: Frank Furedi and his cult have probably been more influential than any other bit of the British far left in the last decade. Although some of this influence has undoubtedly been for the good, some of it has been very malignant. They give a veneer of intellectual respectability to denialism about climate change, have acted as PR agents for the agribusiness, airline and pharmaceutical industries, aided and abetted AIDS denialism and its enormous death toll in Africa, given succour to Serb nationalism at its most aggressive, helped Boris Johnson capture London, provided ideological cover for cuts in the funding for arts, reduced the number of decent free festivals in the parks of London*, and, arguably, are the architects of David Cameron's election victory. Or am I paranoid?

Some time after I wrote it, but before I published it, I sent Jogo, Bob’s American correspondent, an article Furedi wrote about the left/liberal hysteria surrounding the Pope’s visit to the UK. Furedi’s article was brilliantly written, and accurately skewered an unsavoury tendency that elsewhere A Very Public Sociologist has aptly named atheism as the “identity politics of the liberal intelligentsia”. Jogo, understandably, was much taken by Furedi.

This post, following on from this one, is written as part of the on-going attempt, if this is not too pompous a way of putting it, to triangulate Bobism against some of the political positions abutting it. Here, I attempt to think through the way Furedi and his followers can be so correct about some things, and so harmfully wrong about others, and how this makes me think about my own politics.

For those who don't know what I’m talking about, Frank Furedi is an academic, once a member of Tony Cliff’s unorthodox Trotskyist party, the International Socialists (fore-runners of today’s Socialist Workers Party). Furedi left the IS “in 1975 on issues that remain obscure to all concerned”. His grouplet split, with his co-sectarian and fellow academic David Yaffe leading a rival groupuscule into the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG), which became the ne plus ultra of mad anti-imperialism, while Furedi eventually took the hardly original title Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). We need not be concerned here with the zigs and zags of the RCP as it sought to identify its unique selling point in the small and crowded market of the British far left.

I’ll take up the story where I first encountered the RCP: at the end of the 1980s, when they were a colourful presence in the student movement and, clipboards in hand, selling their magazine around Covent Garden, on a prime pitch now occupied by the Big Issue. The RCP were then known for the graphic pzazz of their magazine Living Marxism, by the uber-trendy hairstyles of the cadre, and by their ultra-contrarian political positions. Among the latter: AIDS is a state conspiracy to regulate the sexuality of the working class, a position I took particular offence at, as I then moved in a pretty metrosexual milieu in which people were dying of the disease. This was just before Furedi announced the party’s “turn to the suburbs”.

Feelings, Conspiracies and the Public Debate

Read this post by Roland at The Propagandist.

Meanwhile

I have nearly finished about three long posts that I want you to read, but have been really busy. In the meantime, here's some other things, borrowed from my friends. Nothing about any Miliband.

Airforce Amazons: Radio in a Bottle. Kind of a miscellaneous post, but with a thread running through it. An extract:

Debunking the Islamisation Myth is a substantial attempt by Edmund Standing to distinguish between rational concern about radical Islamist movements, and irrational fears of Britain or other European countries being somehow conquered by political Islam, either via immigration or via conversion. Edmund Standing’s writings are mainly about the extremists of Britain’s racist far right, but he has also written on the extremism of political Islamism, and the interactions between political Islamism and and the kitsch element on the left.

In the past I’ve disagreed with Standing’s views on immigration. I don’t know if his view on that has now changed, but this current effort is a good attempt to tackle the problem of the racist right using concern over the extremist Islamist right to gain support for their divisive politics.

Edmund Standing is a frequent contributor to Harry’s Place, a blog which has itself often been criticised for failing to adequately distance itself from racism and religious bigotry in its ongoing effort to cover extremist Islamism in the UK, this criticism being mainly in relation to the commenters it attracts. More on that topic by Flesh is Grass, Marko Attila Hoare, and Poumista.

Max Dunbar has a good piece on "breaking broken Britain", which covers very similar ground to Kellie.

Modernity has had yet another re-design. He's got a great blog round-up, including these items:

Richard Millet has a persuasive post on Those “disloyal Jews” and the racist thinking that under pins it. CiF Watch covers Hamas Huggers. Entdinglichung highlights how appallingly Syrian Kurds are treated in Denmark. Some golden oldies from Engage. I particularly like Dave Rich’s If I say “Zionist” not “Jew” then I can’t be antisemitic, can I? Contested Terrain has many informative posts, including a pointer to The Myth Of Jewish Communism and AK Press To Fox News’ Glenn Beck: We Have A Lot In Common. For a background to Glenn Beck’s weird views see Adam Holland’s coverage. Judeosphere And The Crazy Just Keeps On Coming… Greens Engage on Passing over antisemitism and EU Commissioner Karel de Gucht. Eric Reeves and The death of ‘Ahmed’ of Kassab camp.

Meanwhile, Ignoblus carries an interview on Roma rights in France, Italy, and elsewhere. Andrew Coates has a helpful clarification on the Roma in France. Greens Engage has a good round-up on the Israeli settlement freeze. Via Entdinglichung: the contemporary situation for Syrian Kurds. Via Volvbilis: the Shi'ites in Saudi Arabia. At The Commune, Eduardo Semtei on Cuba today. Via Engage: a new blog on antisemitism. Finally, Bella asks you to pay attention next time you hear the words "peace" and "justice".

More miscellania at But I Am A Liberal (possibly already linked to!)

Here's Saban Bajramovic remixed by Cubismo, h/t Jogo. For background on this great man and great song, go here or here.

Image credit: Terry.

East London Sukkah

Chag Sameach חג שמח dear readers. And those of you in London, check out the fantastic stuff going on all Sukkot week in the East End as part of the East London Sukkah, organised by OpenVisor, Jewdas and the East London Mosque, featuring some superb artists and music by the wonderful Klezmer Klub.

Image: Jewdas flyering the Brick Lane Beigel Bake.

Total nonsense

I noticed that I am at 182 in the Total Politic top UK blogs of the year. (Down from 138 last year: what have I done wrong?) Almost no blogs I read in the top 50 - Left Foot Forward at no.3 and Liberal Conspiracy at no.13. I occasionally glance at Hopi Sen, Next Left, The Staggers and John Rentoul. The next 50 down, however, is full of blogs I read (see below). What does that mean?

Influential left-wingers

I've been thinking further about the Left Foot Forward challenge to come up with the most influential left-wingers. (See here.) I decided to present my own lists, one of good influences, one of people who have been too influential, and one of people I wish the left were more influenced by. I have confined myself to living people, and the idea of the left I had in mind is probably very anglocentric.  Being negative, I start with bad influences, to get them out of the way.

Bad influences

• Noam Chomsky - gives a veneer of apparent wisdom and academic rigour to simple-minded explanations and a manichean view of the world, thus giving teenagers of all ages over the world permission to think they are being clever and radical when they're not.
• John Pilger - has squandered the immense credibility he has accumulated from his investigative journalism to promote a darkly moralistic view of the world, but a moralism that is curiously silent about dictators and falsely attributes all evil to the US/UK/Israel axis.
• Slavoj Zizek - admittedly funny and clever, this posturing windbag and his ne plus ultra radicalism (oh so daring celebrations of violence and of totalitarian dictators) is so completely divorced from the real world that anyone caught in his headlights is lost to the effort of making it a better place. 
• Hugo Chavez - hugely influential for attempting to de-link Venezuela from the neo-liberal hegemony, Chavez has managed to persuade otherwise sensible people outside his country that socialism can be achieved via thuggish repression of journalists, trade unionists and dissidents.
• Frank Furedi - Furedi and his cult have probably been more influential than any other bit of the British far left in the last decade. Although some of this influence has undoubtedly for the good, some of it has been very malignant. They give a veneer of intellectual respectability to denialism about climate change, have acted as PR agents for the agribusiness, airline and pharmaceutical industries, aided and abetted AIDS denialism and its enormous death toll in Africa, given succour to Serb nationalism at its most aggressive, helped Boris Johnson capture London, provided ideological cover for cuts in the funding for arts, reduced the number of decent free festivals in the parks of London, and, arguably, are the architects of David Cameron's election victory. Or am I paranoid?

Good influences

• Norman Geras - a pioneer of political blogging (and therefore influential in opening up on-line audiences to left-wing cranks and crackpots like me), but also a profound thinker of Marxism and its limits, and an inspiration to those of us who like to think that left-wing values of justice and freedom are compatible with moral sense.
• Evo Morales - his election five years ago, with his humble ways and stripy sweaters, was a great inspiration, and his landslide re-election last year was too. In contrast to his companero Chavez, he showed that it is possible to de-link from the neo-liberal world without going down an authoritarian route.
• Maryam Namazie - although she comes very much from the trad left, she exemplifies what was best about it: an uncompromising internationalism and secular humanism.
• Antonio Negri - I have a lot of criticisms of Negri, and find his celebrity cult status unnerving, but he has introduced a generation to some of the most important ideas of the left, and helps provide a ground for the possible renewal of radical thought.
• Peter Tatchell - although sometimes I think he is a little nutty, and some of his obsessions (e.g. the Pope) are quite alien to mine, Tatchell is an inspiration because of his extraordinary courage, consistency and commitment – despite his health problems caused by taking beatings from  Mugabe's thugs in 2001 and Russian bigots in 2007.

Not influential enough

• Gita Sahgal - stands for a recognition that human rights are for everyone, not just for brown-skinned men with beards, and that some apparent forms of radicalism are also forms of repression.
• Eric Lee - stands for a commitment to the class struggle and social justice, globally, rather than all the fads and obsessions that the left has been seduced by.
• Terry Glavin - stands for genuine internationalism, and a great writer.
• A Sivanandan - Sivanandan has always been an untimely figure, and has therefore always been marginalised by the left - his savage critiques of the dogmas of ethnic identity politics, fashionable New Times postmodernism and bureaucratic multiculturalism in the 1980s were not heeded by enough in the movement, and more recently he saw before almost anyone else the way in which racism against immigrants (including "white" ones) was eclipsing older colour- and even culturally-coded forms of racism in British society.
• Peter Linebaugh – I think the left would be a better place if it was Linebaugh and not Zizek or Negri who was the global superstar. He is a much deeper and richer thinker than them by a country mile.

Would this work as a meme? As (following LFF), I've listed bunches of five, I'll tag five people. Let's see if it has legs. Here's my five: Harpy, Phil, Dave, James, Jim.

A man's origin is from dust and his destiny is back to dust, at risk of his life he earns his bread; he is likened to a broken shard, withering grass, a fading flower, a passing shade, a dissipating cloud, a blowing wind, flying dust, and a fleeting dream

Harvey Pekar:
An unfinished tale (h/t Jogo)

More Chomsky/Holocaust denial/"free speech" bollocks:
Chomsky dips into the negationist swamp again (in French, but google translate does an unusually fine job, and the video is in English. h/t Graeme here). Oh, Philosemitism has some of it in English here.

Mind your sources
On Anti-Racist Action's racist sources

Solidarity:
BHL: yes we can (save Sakineh); Lauryn Hill: Hitchens had it right then and now.

To add to the reading list:
Critical kabbalist

Below the fold, some versions of "Kol Nidre", and other Yom Kippur music.

miscellaneous notes

Decentism, indecentism
Things that are only of consequence to the bloggosphere--aka the tits on a bull post

Roma:
Europe's most persecuted people.

RCPWatch:
Inside Modern Movement: the anatomy of the continuity Revolutionary Communist Party.

Immigration:
Immigration: why let the truth spoil a good story? Sanctuary for Friman Saleh. Boris Johnson says Coalition policy a shambles.

Fascism and anti-fascism
Fascism and how not to fight it (sorry; I missed this when it was posted).

Left antisemitism, Green Party edition
Very cunning Nazis infiltrate the Green Party?

Reconfiguring the left, continued

For creative and critical thinking. Michael Gove on what went wrong.

Alternative histories
Class war in the Blitz.

The shame of it
BBC excludes Maryam Namazie, promotes Tehran propaganda.

To add to the reading list:
Contrarian Notebooks.

Down, down, down

Iain Dale has released his "top 100 left-wing blogs" from this year's Total Politics poll. I've fallen from a respectable no.47 to disreputable no.67.

A lot of comrades seem to have dropped down, e.g. Stroppy (no.90, down from 53) and Norm (no.71, down from 57), presumably due to the arrival of, er, younger more dynamic bloggers bursting on to the scene like Weggis (no.82). Here's how some of my other extended family members fared: Dave Hill (69), Adam Bienkov (55), Madame Miaow (52), Pickled Politics (50), Harpy (47), Splintered Sunrise (41), Barkingside 21 (a very impressive 35 - but not sure how left-wing), the ever-improving Though Cowards Flinch (33), last year's stars the Third Estate (28, down from no.14), Dave Osler (24), Chris Dillow (21, inexplicably down from 9), Jim J (18), AVPS (17), and the almost certainly deserving but not left wing enough for me Left Foot Forward at no.1.

Now voting is closed, I will reveal my own votes. I decided not to vote for really big hitters that would get lots of votes anyway (Harry's Place) or the blogs I really like which I sensed were too small to reach the top 100 even with my support, and concentrated on the middle of the field. And I put myself first, of course, because I'm simply the best.

1. Bob From Brockley
2. Shiraz Socialist
3. Dave Osler
4. Though Cowards Flinch
5. A Very Public Sociologist
6. ModernityBlog
7. 853
8. Dave Hill's London Blog
9. The Third Estate
10. The Daily (Maybe)

Looking at that list, I'm surprised at some of my omissions (most notably Flesh, who makes the green top 14).

Jim reminds me that Left Foot Forward is polling for "most influential" lefties. I don't quite get the question. Is this good influences? Bad influences? Influential on the rest of the left? Influential on the wider world? The British left or the global left? Looking at the Iain Dale list, clearly Shiraz Socialist are not influential enough, while Jim J, Andy Newman and Mehdi Hasan are too bloody influential!



See also: Flesh is Grass: how to be a top political blogger; Hopi Sen: a spectre is haunting blogging (via Left Outside [no.95], from whom I've stolen the picture above); TCF - boycott Total Politics.

A tourist on the left

I could have done it yesterday if I hadn't a cold,
But since I've put this pint away I've never felt so bold.
So as soon as this pub closes, as soon as this pub closes,
As soon as this pub closes, the revolution starts. - Alex Glasgow

You cannot - to transpose this theme to the motley crew of misfits gathering with their slogans in Lower Manhattan - be Pamela Geller and George Galloway.

Or can you? Here is where Debord comes in. The spectacle may, on one level, appear divided. On another, it is united, more so than the average angry protestor may realize. – Ben Cohen

A feeble logic, whose finger beckons us to the dark spectacle of the Stalinist Soviet Union, affirms the bankruptcy of Bolshevism, followed by that of Marxism, followed by that of Socialism... Have you forgotten the other bankruptcies? What was Christianity doing in the various catastrophes of society? What became of Liberalism? What has Conservatism produced in either its enlightened or its reactionary forms? Did it not spawn Mussolini, Hitler, Salazar, and Franco? If we are indeed honestly to weigh out the bankruptcies of ideology, we shall have a long task ahead of us... The paradox that he has developed, doubtless out of a love for provocative theory, is as false as is dangerous. – Victor Serge

This post started out as comments here and here, but got so long I decided to amalgamate it into a post in its own right, although I’m still conscious of a number of loose threads still dangling. It is a series of questions, rather than an answer.

The background: Terry Glavin is asking us to re-think the paradigm of anti-fascism. In fighting clerical fascism, people like him sometimes find themselves aligned with people on the “right” of the old political divide. This alignment is exemplified by new blog The Propagandist, which lists me among its allies, alongside others who link to the far right. Waterloo Sunset, a regular commenter on this blog, has started a blog of his own, Everybody Hates a Tourist, which kicks off with an attack on The Propagandist, and on the idea of trying to bridge the old left/right divide. This attempt, he notes, has a long and largely history, most recently exemplified by the so-called “autonomous nationalists” or “national anarchists”. Since I started writing this, Terry has replied to some of the main points, and James Bloodworth has covered some similar ground.

1. The Kevin Bacon theory of political networking in the age of social media

WS suggests that being a click or two away from the English Defence League makes it hard to claim any kind of decency or status as an “anti-fascist”. This is an issue that we talked about here (in relation to the anti-German Bahamas and the EDL), and one I still don’t know what I think of. Take my blog as an example. I am on the blogroll of, on the one hand, Socialist Unity, Splintered Sunrise and Andrew Coates and, on the other hand, The Propagandist, Sultan Knish and the Closet Republican – and I reciprocate all those links. In one direction, therefore, I am a click or two away from Serbian nationalism, apologies for Mao’s genocidal regime in China and for capitalism with Chinese characteristics, Hamas, and Iranian theocracy. In the other direction, I am a click or two away from Kahanist ultra-Zionism, Geert Wilders, the Gates of Vienna and the English Defence League. (And, actually, as Everybody Hate a Tourist includes me on the blogroll, as do a fair few others on his blogroll, like Slack Andy and the Fat Man, they’re also just a couple of clicks away from this lot too.)

The cutting edge

Essential reading:

Terry Glavin: Antifaschismus: Shifting the Paradigm, In for The Long Haul. (Also followed up here: A tribute to "activists with impeccable credentials on the European left.")

Decency, propaganda and the left: 

Martin has a post on that subject, referencing mine, and also recommending The Propagandist. I've been meaning to recommend the latter for a while too, partly because my blog is listed among "allied propagandists". It describes itself as a blog of the anti-fascist left and thinking conservatives. It has some good contributors, including some people I respect, such as Terry Glavin, Eamonn McDonagh, and Ben Cohen. I applaud the ambition to bring together commentators from across the increasingly irrelevant left-right divide. But, like Martin and Terry, it is a little uncomfortable to be in the company of some of the "thinking conservatives", and I feel odd being aligned with such as the Infidel Bloggers Alliance, Diana West, and No Dhimmitude.

As Martin and Terry note, these bloggers see the key battle as between "Western values" and its enemies, whereas we (in Martin's words) prefer to talk about "defending democracy, pluralism and freedom of thought and expression - which I believe are universal rather than specifically 'Western' values." The West may have given birth to some of these values, but it has upheld them very poorly, from the slave trade to the destruction of many of the Native cultures of the Americas to the violence of colonialism to the violence against Jews in the heart of the West. And, as Terry puts it,

I know no one in "the west" fighting for democracy, free thought and equality the way our Afghan and Iranian friends fight. Among my comrades, none are more fervent in their devotion to the cause of toleration and human rights than those of them who happen to be Muslim.

Read Terry's blog for some examples of this heroic devotion.

Comment trail:
Flesh is Grass: Unlucky roads – Roma in Europe (on Roma rights and the left crying racism); Tendance Coates: Michael Ezra and the falsification of history (on Roma rights in Serbia, Harry's Place, the white working class and swearing).

The English Defence League and its enemies:
As usual, a round-up of links, rather than any specific endorsements of analysis. The AWL on the EDL in Bradford; Schnews: out of their league; the EDL's Muslim mascot; Anti-fascist strategies tested at Bradford; and lots more from the Stop Racism and Fascism Network.

One interesting thing about the EDL moment is proliferation of "defence leagues". I guess the Jewish Defence League (JDL) was first, and I've read Islamists claiming that they were going to demonstrate against Al-Quds day, although I'm not sure if they did, alongside the EDL. Then came the EDL, then its fake "Welsh" and "Scottish" offshoots. And then Aki Nawaz, ex of Fun-Da-Mental, starts a Muslim Defence League. And now Trot sect Workers Power are proposing an Anti-Fascist Defence League.

Oh, and the latest, a European Defence League. This last is important, and links to the stuff above, because this is the link-up between the EDL and the US/European counter-jihad movement, which includes the likes of Robert Spencer, Pam Geller, and Gert Wilders. To quote Marko:

A great struggle is brewing all over Europe and beyond. On the one side stands the liberal order and its defenders, representing the values of secularism, internationalism, cosmopolitanism, pluralism and respect for human rights. On the other stands the forces of reaction, which itself is composed of two rival but essentially similar wings. Extremist Muslims (an unrepresentative minority among the Muslim communities of the democratic West) and certain fellow travellers on the extreme Left represent one wing of the anti-liberal reaction, and assault the liberal order under the banner of anti-Semitism (or ‘anti-Zionism’), anti-Westernism, anti-Americanism and anti-capitalism.

But it is the other wing that is the Western liberal order’s more dangerous enemy – if only because non-Muslims vastly outnumber Muslims, so there is a much larger constituency for this current of reaction to draw from. This current represents the white nativist reaction against the liberal order: anti-cosmopolitan, anti-EU, often anti-secular, but above all extremely nationalist, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant. It is on the basis of hostility to Islam and to immigration that the new far-right is mounting its assault on liberal values and the Western liberal world.

Other links:
Cutting edge Deptford; The non-crazy left; Noga reads Hitchens; Andre Glucksmann on the Jerusalem syndrome; The Independent's 21st century racism; The forgetfulness of Monsieur Minc; and lots more links.

And here, for Terry, and for all the wonderful people I spent time with in Belfast last week, the Fureys singing "Mountains of Mourne".

Political influences no.1: John Pilger – speaking truth to power

This is the first post in a series. For the introduction to the series, see the post below this one.

It was the discussion of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia in the comment thread on this post of Andrew Coates’ that reminded me that I’ve had it in mind to write this post for some time. For a complicated reason it is not worth explaining, this genocide was the first issue on which I became passionately engaged, and on which my views were not formed by my parents.

To summarise, the Khmer Rouge were a bizarre and extreme Maoist sect who were sponsored by China, allied to the Communist North Vietnamese against the Americans in the Vietnam war and incubated by the Viet Cong when the latter were based in Cambodia in the late 1960s. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, they came to power in 1975, and launched probably the most brutal totalitarian regime of the modern era. The death toll of the regime is disputed, but the most authoritative accounts put the figure at around 1.7 million, 20% of the population. The slaughter came to an end in 1978, when Vietnam invaded and liberated the country. Vietnam installed a puppet government (the People's Republic of Kampuchea – PRK) and started the task of re-building and healing the shattered nation, although the Khmer Rouge continued their insurgency until 1998 from bases on the Thai border. By 1978, the Cold War had shifted on its axis, the US was building up relations with the Khmer Rouge’s main sponsor, China. The United Nations, under pressure from America and China, refused to recognise the new administration, instead giving a seat to a government in exile, the CGDK, which included the Khmer Rouge. Only the Soviet Union and its allies recognised the PRK.

I am not sure if John Pilger took up the cause of Cambodia in the period when Pol Pot was America’s enemy (that is, during the worst years of the genocide), but after he took up the cause he did more than anyone to expose the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime. Jams listed Pilger as one of his political influences, writing: “Although I don't care for a lot of what Pilger has to say, Cambodia: Year Zero had a profound effect on me.” Many others of mine and Jams’ generation would say something similar.